Sunak's Govt Grants 24 New North Sea Oil & Gas LIcenses; New Production Might Be Online By 2030

Britain has handed major oil companies the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea as part of the government’s mission to extend the life of the ageing oil and gas basin. The North Sea regulator said 17 oil companies, including Shell and BP, were granted licences in the Central North Sea, Northern North Sea and West of Shetland areas to “provide benefits to the local and wider economy”.

The latest licences, which follow an initial tranche of 27 licences offered in October last year, could begin producing oil and gas before the end of the decade, according to the North Sea Transition Authority. The move has angered MPs and environmental campaigners who called the move “grossly irresponsible” and accused the government of overstating the economic benefits of the North Sea and sacrificing Britain’s climate leadership for “a pipe dream”.

Graham Stuart, the minister for energy security and net zero, was forced to defend the government’s decision to encourage more North Sea oil and gas drilling despite signing up to a pledge to phase out fossil fuels at the Cop28 UN climate talks in December. He told MPs on the environmental audit committee that the new licences would be “good news in our transition to net zero”.

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Critics have pointed out that the policy, which will raise billions for the Treasury in the short-term, will do little to secure Britain’s energy supplies or lower energy bills because the new licences will mostly produce oil which the UK typically exports to refineries in Europe. Tessa Khan, the executive director of Uplift, which campaigns against fossil fuels, said: “This government is selling us a pipe dream. These new licences will do vanishingly little for the UK’s energy security and nothing to lower energy bills. In the last 13 years the government has issued hundreds of new licences, which have produced a grand total of 16 days’ worth of extra gas. And in the past decade the number of jobs supported by the oil and gas industry has more than halved.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/31/grossly-irresponsible-uk-hands-out-24-new-north-sea-oil-and-gas-licences